erik lundegaard

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Monday April 22, 2013

Why Do IMDb Users Dislike 'Bull Durham'?

I posted my rankings for the best (and worst) baseball movies the other day, and shortly you'll have a chance to do so yourself, but in the meantime I thought I'd list how baseball movies fare on IMDb.com.

I know i've done this kind of thing before, mostly with best-picture winners, but what caught my eye this time was the IMDb rating for Ron Shelton's “Bull Durham”—regarded by baseball fans as the best baseball movie ever made.

On IMDb it's got a 7.0 rating. Which isn't great. Here's how it ranks among baseball movies:

Title IMDb Rating IMDb Rank My Rank Difference
Ken Burns’ Baseball (1994) 8.6 1 2 -1
42 (2013) 7.8 2 15 -13
Catching Hell (2011) 7.8 3 8 -5
61* (2001) 7.7 4 3 1
The Pride of the Yankees (1942) 7.7 4 23 -19
Moneyball (2011) 7.6 6 4 2
The Sandlot (1993) 7.6 6 30 -24
Field of Dreams (1989) 7.5 8 14 -6
Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story (2010) 7.4 9 18 -9
Long Gone (1987) 7.4 9 n/a  
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (1998) 7.4 9 5 4
The Natural (1984) 7.4 9 7 2
Eight Men Out (1988) 7.2 13 9 4
Sugar (2008) 7.1 14 10 4
The Bad News Bears (1976) 7.1 14 6 8
A League of Their Own (1992) 7.0 16 13 3
Bull Durham (1988) 7.0 16 1 15
Damn Yankees! (1958) 7.0 16 21 -5
Major League (1989) 7.0 16 11 5
The Stratton Story (1948) 7.0 16 24 -8
Angels in the Outfield (1951) 6.9 21 26 -5
Fear Strikes Out (1957) 6.9 21 33 -12
It Happens Every Spring (1949) 6.9 21 n/a  
Pastime (1990) 6.9 21 16 5
The Rookie (2002) 6.9 21 12 9
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) 6.8 26 17 9
Take Me Out to the Ballgame (1949) 6.7 27 27 0
Trouble with the Curve (2012) 6.7 27 40 -13
The Perfect Game (2009) 6.6 29 n/a  
Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976) 6.5 30 22 8
The Pride of St. Louis (1952) 6.5 30 n/a  
American Pastime (2007) 6.4 32 n/a  
BASEketball (1998) 6.4 32 42 -10
The Final Season (2007) 6.4 32 n/a  
Cobb (1994) 6.3 35 37 -2
For Love of the Game (1999) 6.3 35 19 16
The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) 6.3 35 38 -3
Fever Pitch (2005) 6.1 38 20 18
Hard Ball (2001) 6.1 38 45 -7
The House of Steinbrenner (2010) 6.1 38 28 10
It Happened in Flatbush (1942) 6.0 41 n/a  
Bad News Bears (2005) 5.8 42 n/a  
Game 6 (2005) 5.8 42 25 17
Little Big League (1994) 5.8 42 31 11
Angels in the Outfield (1994) 5.7 45 36 9
Talent for the Game (1991) 5.7 45 n/a  
The Babe (1992) 5.7 45 39 6
Calvin Marshall (2010) 5.6 48 n/a  
Mr. Baseball (1992) 5.6 48 29 19
Rookie of the Year (1993) 5.6 48 34 14
Mr. 3000 (2004) 5.5 51 35 16
The Babe Ruth Story (1948) 5.5 51 44 7
Major League II (1994) 5.2 53 32 21
The Scout (1994) 5.2 53 41 12
The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) 5.1 55 47 8
Safe at Home! (1962) 5.0 56 n/a  
Major League III: Back to the Minors (1998) 4.2 57 43 14
The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) 3.1 58 46 12

To be fair, most of the movies above it are good (“61*”) or considered to be good (“Pride of the Yankees”).

Even so: Tied for 16th? With “The Stratton Story”? Six points behind “The Sandlot”?

I get most of the early discrepancies between myself and the general IMDb user. “42” is still riding its newness; “Pride of the Yankees” was long-considered the best baseball movie ever made and still has its fans, who apparently vote; and “The Sandlot” gets a big push from the youngsters, who most assuredly vote. The younger you are, the more you like “The Sandlot.”

But whither “Bull Durham”? Thoughts?

Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in the bathrub in "Bull Durham" (1988)

Talkin' baseball/ Wrigley and Camden
Talkin' baseball/ Costner and Sarandon

Posted at 06:48 AM on Monday April 22, 2013 in category Baseball